November 28, 1884.] 



SCIENCE. 



495 



BICKBRSTAFF'S 

 BOSTON 



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dred or a hundred and five days, called tonal pohualli. 

 The year was divided into eighteen months of twenty 

 days each : the five extra days were looked upon as 

 outcasts and unlucky days. The week was only five 

 days long. Further, they recognized a cycle of fifty- 

 two years, each 

 of which had a 

 name,and during 

 the last night of 

 any one of which 

 the world might 

 come to an end. 

 On the Mexi- 

 can calendar- 

 stone the sun- 

 god is represent- 

 ed in the middle, 

 and surrounding 

 him the symbols 

 of the sixteen 

 hours of the day. 

 The four larger 

 pointers indicate 

 sunrise, mid-day, 

 sunset, and mid- 

 night. The sub- 

 divisions of eight 

 hours are marked 

 by the smaller 

 pointers, while 

 the sixteen hours 

 are indicated by 

 the small towers 

 at the corre- 

 sponding dis- 

 tances. In the 

 narrow belt sur- 

 rounding the 

 central shield are 

 found the sym- 

 bols for the 

 twenty Mexican 

 months, begin- 

 ning at the left 

 of the centre at 

 the top, and run- 

 ning round con- 

 trary to the hands 

 of a watch. The 

 first is named Ci- 

 pac, for the as- 

 tronomer who 

 added the five 

 days to the year; 

 the second is 

 called ehecatl 

 (' wind '); and 

 the third, colli 



('house'), showing a Mexican house with flat roof. 

 Surrounding this is a narrow zone of squares, each 

 containing five points divided into four lots of ten 

 squares each, which gives two hundred dots. There 

 are lacking sixty dots to make up the larger subdivis- 



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ion of the year ; and it will be noticed that the space 

 for these is exactly occupied by the pointers, the lines 

 across the pointers indicating that the zones are sup- 

 posed to be continued under them. The other divis- 

 ion of the year contains a hundred and five days as 



represented by 

 - 1 the zone of 



glyphs just out- 

 side the zone of 

 dots, and it will 

 be found to con- 

 tain a hundred. 

 The missing five 

 are seen directly 

 under the sun's 

 face. There only 

 remains the rep- 

 resentation o f 

 the fifty -two 

 years cycle, and 

 this is found in 

 the outer belt. 

 Every fifty -two 

 years the sacred 

 fire was rekin- 

 dled, the cere- 

 mony beginning 

 with human sac- 

 rifices, and end- 

 ing by the rekin- 

 dling of the fire 

 by rubbing a 

 stick in a hollow 

 piece of wood. 

 This rekindling 

 is symbolized in 

 each of the fig- 

 ures of the outer 

 belt. The verti- 

 cal column rep- 

 resents the stick, 

 and the flames 

 are seen rising at 

 either side. The 

 belt just within 

 this outer one 

 symbolizes the 

 destruction o f 

 the world by 

 rain, being a 

 rough represen- 

 tation of clouds, 

 with four 

 streams of rain 

 descending from 

 each. The Mex- 

 icans had a tra- 

 dition of four de- 

 structions of the earth, — one by war, symbolized by 

 the tiger's head above the sun at the right; another by 

 wind ; another by rain; and the fourth by great flood. 

 The four squares around the sun-head are supposed 

 to symbolize these epochs. The antiquarian would 



